ANP undeterred still resisting militancy ahead of Elections

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The recent suicide attack on the Awami National Party’s candidate Haroon Ahmed Bilour is not the first of its kind that the party went through by the state enemies ahead of elections.

6 year back, 2012, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, father of the deceased Haroon Ahmed, was also in the hit list of the Taliban Militants that claimed his life as well. He was presiding over a party meeting when a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself.

Haroon Ahmed Bilour was assassinated in the same fashion his father was killed, and within 24 of the appalling attack Taliban held the responsibility, Dawn reported.

ANP lies in the list of those secular parties which apparently did not surrender their resolve before militancy, but openly challenged them by backing the military operations in the Malakand Division and Tribal Areas. Since then, the outlawed groups have been conducting retaliation against them by targeting their activists over the last few years.

It is evident that Khyber-PakhtunKhuwah province suffered the most in all four province due to its proximity to the Afghan Border.

Furthermore, the attacks on ANP leaders had severely affected their election campaign in 2013, which proved out to be the contributing factor, according to them, of their defeat in last elections, because they were batten down the hatches due to the dicey situation in the province.

In 2013, country’s situation was much worse than one could ever imagine; back then terrorism was reigned supreme, people were so afraid to step out of their house due to the uncertainty whether they would come back alive or not. However, after the Operation Zarb-e-Azab, a prominent decrease in terrorism activities is observed, if not completely.

All political parties across the country have condemned the suicide attack in Peshawar by taking their condemnations in social media and called it deliberate act to obstruct the election proceeding.

Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has condemned the suicide attack and urged the state to provide full-proof security to all the political parties and their candidates during election campaigns.

Sad to learn of Haroon Bilour and 2 other ANP workers deaths and strongly condemn the terrorist attack at the ANP corner mtg in Peshawar. All political parties and their candidates must be provided proper security during their election campaigns by the State.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shehbaz Sharif said he was “grieved to learn about shahadat of Haroon Bilour” and that he “strongly condemn this barbaric act of terrorism”.

Bilour family has suffered the worst terrorist violence & rendered sacrifices for Pakistan. Basheer Bilour Shaheed was a brave leader who was martyred 6 years ago. Son of Haroon Bilour is reported to be critically injured along with others. Pray for his & others’ early recovery https://t.co/DCWRh2HgOA

National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) had already aware the Senate standing committee about the dangers and threats to the political leadership during ongoing election campaigns and after the released warning it is the first terrorist attack in the current election campaign and once again ANP fell prey to this militancy.